Florida Recount Lapse May Seal Republican’s Loss in House Race

Florida’s St. Lucie County missed a
deadline for recounting of ballots cast in U.S. Representative
Allen West’s re-election race, potentially sealing Democrat
Patrick Murphy’s victory over the first-term Republican.

The county failed to process its recount by noon today as
required, which would leave in place an earlier tally that left
West about 1,900 votes behind Murphy, according to Tim Edson,
West’s campaign manager. A call to the St. Lucie’s election
office wasn’t answered today.

West, a favorite of the anti-tax Tea Party movement, was
elected in 2010 to represent the district, which also includes
part of Palm Beach County. His campaign is evaluating options
for challenging the results to ensure votes were counted
correctly, Edson said in a telephone interview.

“We’re going to pursue whatever means we can to correct
this,” he said. “All we are asking for is a full and accurate
count of all the ballots.”

St. Lucie County’s failure to meet the deadline was
reported earlier today by the Associated Press.